


Coming Home Late, Taking Showers

by Not Applicable (not_applicable)



Series: A Silver Anniversary [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Interracial Relationship, M/M, Pining, Pre-Slash, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-16
Updated: 2013-11-16
Packaged: 2018-01-01 19:08:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1047531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/not_applicable/pseuds/Not%20Applicable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This moment, from <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/880794">Twenty-Five Years</a>:</p><p>
  <i>Tony continued to come home late and take showers. On some of those nights he would slip into Rhodey's room and climb under the covers and press his skin along every warm inch of Rhodey's that he could get to. And he would whisper along Rhodey's neck and his shoulders, never speaking loud enough for him to hear. </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Home Late, Taking Showers

Tony was 17 and quietly easing out of some guy's bed. The guy was snoring like a chainsaw so Tony didn't try to be quiet as he shuffled around to find his stuff on the floor. He hated fucking in dorm rooms but at least this guy had a private one, and the grad student dorms were nicer. Tony hadn't intended to go home with anyone tonight but his birthday was coming up in a few months and he had been fighting with his parents a lot lately, and he was still kind of put off by his last fight with Rhodey. He needed comfort of a very specific kind and Rhodey still would not give it to him, so he supposed he could make do with the grad student TA from last semester's aerospace engineering seminar.

He still felt kinda bad for that fight, though everything had ended well. It wasn't even really a fight when he considered how it went, how it ended, what he knew now because of it. He would be 18 in three months, and then they could begin. He was tying his shoes now and glancing at the lump in the bed, hairy back and bad breath, and he had been too rough, too. Tony smelled like this guy now too and he fucking hated that, smelled like tacos and aftershave and chalk dust. Tony had called home while he was on campus to ask Rhodey to get dinner from the rotiseria around the corner from their place, and he regretted having missed dinner with him now.

Tony walked out of the room without saying goodbye. He walked to the student union where taxis hung out, even this late at night, and he got a cab home. It was three in the morning and all he could think about was taking a shower, getting clean.

He walked into their apartment and locked the door behind him, giving a quick glance across their vast living room before going towards his room. He understood why Rhodey didn't like the place. It was nothing like his mom's house in Philly, which was large but crowded with furniture and photos and remembrances of Rhodey's father and the rest of their family. Tony hadn't gone back to California once for the holidays since he met Rhodey. He didn't want to.

He stripped off his clothes in his bedroom (he'd promised that he'd stop leaving them in the bathroom) and then went to the shower naked, walking past the open door of Rhodey's room to see him hidden under the covers, fast asleep in the darkness. Tony's pulse quickened and he walked faster, eager to fall asleep now. He turned on the water and stepped under it before it even got warm enough, and he adjusted the temperature and began to clean himself quickly but thoroughly. He could smell the guy on him still and he used his expensive body wash to send all the sweat and cologne down the drain. He picked up Rhodey's equally expensive bar of soap and smelled it, then put it back. He was clean now but he could remember the way that TA smelled when he was on top of him, musky and bitter and garlicky. He shook his head and turned off the water, then stepped out to dry himself and his hair.

He rubbed lotion on his hands and feet and then walked into Rhodey's room, where he lay still asleep. Tony went into the room silently and still nude, and he was always impressed that Rhodey didn't yell at him whenever he woke to find Tony naked in bed with him. Maybe he understood.

Rhodey's sheets smelled warm and heavy and sweet like his sweat, and Tony slid close to him, spooned himself along his body and pressed himself to him. Tony kind of didn't care if he woke Rhodey up as he ran a hand down his arm and threaded their fingers together, wrapping his arms around Rhodey and pressing his face into the back of Rhodey's neck. He moved his lips there but didn't speak out loud. _(I am ready to begin with you, I want to marry you.)_ He felt Rhodey's hand tighten and he winced a bit – he _did_ care if he'd woken Rhodey up because it was midterms and he knew Rhodey was studying himself to sleep most nights.

Rhodey turned over and he didn't say anything. He was in his boxers and he had to know Tony was naked, but he didn't address it. He slid an arm under Tony and pulled him against his chest, then laid back against his pillow and closed his eyes again. Tony leaned up and kissed Rhodey's cheek, making Rhodey smile in the darkness of his room, of their home, and then Tony laid back down, his head on Rhodey's chest. He was listening to Rhodey's heart and moving his lips, but not speaking out loud.


End file.
